Apple Online Service Drops … Sales Follow

Reports today that Apple’s online sales have dropped for only the second time ever is not a major shock to those of us that use their online services. The performance Apple online through iTunes has been noticeably poorer of late. Updates almost always fail – it can take up to 5 attempts to contact the “iTunes Server” and get an app updated. Similarly, a “Genius” update can take 20 or 30 minutes on a library normally updated in less than 1 minute. Having dismissed this as a local bandwidth issue, it now seems it is a general malaise, and arguably the source of the drop in sales given iTunes underpins the whole Apple ecosystem. Tricky to understand what has happened – whether an software update to the online iTunes infrastructure has gone wrong, or possibly the now endemic malicious activity, or just plain and simple capacity issues mis-managed at Apple datacentres ? Comment from the Cupertino crew would be very welcome. “This wouldn’t have happened in Jobs’ day, I can tell you !”

SAN ANSELMO, CA - NOVEMBER 16: The Beatles catalog is displayed on Apple's iTunes on November 16, 2010 in San Anselmo, California. Apple has struck a deal with the record label EMI and the Beatles' company Apple Corps to sell digital downloads of the legendary rock band's music on iTunes. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)